Vegetarian Haleem

Haleem replete with garnishes

*Can be made vegan by omitting the yoghurt

Haleem can be made with beef, chicken, or goat. But what about a vegetarian version? Here I have created one. This is not a low fat dish. It is rich and heavy due to all of the nuts, seeds, and oil. Vegetarians will enjoy this veg version of this classic dish which is eaten in many Muslim communities, but those who are used to rich, meaty versions of haleem will also enjoy this recipe.

For this you need a box of Shan Shahi Haleem. This box will contain a packet of lentils/grains and a packet of ground spices. For those of you who have not used Shahi haleem mix, this makes a HUGE amount of haleem. Since this is a labor intensive recipe with a lot of steps, I usually freeze half of the batch of haleem, or even divide it into thirds and freeze it. That way you can enjoy haleem without having to do the work every time. Alternatively, you can half the recipe.

Open packet of Shan Shahi Haleem lentil/grain mixture. Optionally, and 1/2 cup extra pearl barley. I do this because I like the chewy texture of the barley in the haleem. Wash the lentils/grains well and soak overnight.

So you need:
1 box Shahi Haleem Mix (take care not to accidentally buy the Shan Easy Cook Haleem)
1/2 cup pearl barley

Making the Masala Yakhni

To cook them make a vegetarian masala yakhni. You will need 10 cups of water. (I make this in two sessions in a glass bowl in the microwave, rather than all at once.) To the water you will add:

2-3 tbs medley of whole garam masalas. I buy a bag of mixed whole garam masalas, but if you need to assemble your own medley----a few bay leaves, pieces of cinnamon bark, a few cardamom pods, 1-2 black cardamom pods, whole coriander, cumin, fennel, cloves, black pepper, a tiny bit of nutmeg and mace, 5 dried red chiles.

Optionally, you can add Hyderabadi potli masalas. Don't worry about this if you don't have it. It just adds an extra level of flavor, but this is already a flavorful dish with lots of masala. I ordered my potli masalas online, but if you live in an area with a lot of Hyderabadi Muslims, the Indian/Pakistani store will have some of these masalay, and some ingredients will be in the ayurvedic section of an Indian grocery.

1 tbs stone flowers (pathar ka phool)

1/2 cup dried rose petals (sukhe gulab ke sej)
a 3 inch chunk of dried root of betel plant  (paan ki jar)
1 tbs all spice (kabab chini)
1 tbs naag kesar (I have no idea what word exists for this in English) 
1 tbs kapoor kachri """"
1tbs dried Vetevier roots (khas ki jar)
3 pieces pipli (long black pepper corn, piper longum)

In a large microwave safe bowl, add these masalas in 5 cups of water. Microwave for 6 minutes. Strain the water twice (use a fine sieve) and keep aside. Repeat with the same wet spices. Once you've microwaved and strained the spices in water twice, you can toss them out. They have done their job. You will end up with brown colored masala water. 

Optionally, you can boil the water and spices together on the stove top for 10 minutes. The result is called a yakhni, or broth.

The Lentils/Grains

Cook the soaked lentils/grains in the masala yakhni that you have made. This can be done by boiling and then covering on simmer for about 1 hour, pressure cooking (in 2 split batches), or even left overnight in a crockpot. Add 1/4 tsp turmeric to lentils/grains as they cook. You can add 3-5 green chiles to the lentils when you boil them to make it extra spicy. But don't add salt unless you are cooking in a pressure cooker.  Otherwise add salt after the lentils/grains are completely cooked. You need about 2 tbs salt. (This is going to end up being a huge pot of haleem, but you can split the recipe in half if you use half the Shan lentils.)

Keep the cooked lentils aside in the vessel in which you want to finish the dish (large pot, crockpot, etc). You will have a bunch of cooked lentils in starchy water. Take care that the pot you use have room to add more ingredients because you will be adding your vegetables and spice paste and you don't want overflow or difficulty in pureeing later.

The Vegetables

For the vegetables which will be cauliflower and eggplant. You can really use any vegetable but avoid veg that will give the haleem a strange color. Haleem varies in color from khaki tan to yellowish to golden brown...so no large quantities of green or orange veg.

Chop one medium head of cauliflower in florets and deep fry them until tender. The cauliflower does not have to be completely cooked from frying because it will cook further when you add it to the haleem.

Roast 2 large eggplants in the oven. Do this by stabbing them a few times with a knife, coating lightly in oil, and wrapping in foil, then baking on a foil covered tray at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 20 mins. When the eggplant cools, skin it and remove the seeds and keep aside.



The Spice Paste

For the masala:

1 whole packet Shan shahi haleem masala spice.
1 heaping tbs garam masala
1/4 heaping cup almonds
1/4 heaping cup cashews
2 tsp roasted ground white poppy seed (khashkhaash or khas khas)
3 tbs roasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup shredded coconut, browned (I use frozen Indian coconut from the desi store and toast it in the oven)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
5 fresh green chiles
3 tbs Greek yoghurt, whipped
pinch of salt
3/4 loosely packed cup of red fried onions/birishta (linked instructions for making birishta)
1 cup oil (best if you have oil from frying the birishta)
2 tbs ginger/garlic paste

Soak the cashews and almonds in warm water for 1+ hours. In a blender add the nuts and soaking water. Add the fried onion, sesame seeds, coconut, and green chiles, and pinch of salt. Grind, adding a little more water as necessary.

Heat  the cup of oil in pan. Fry the ginger garlic paste. When this looks golden, stir in the masala paste. Fry this for 5 minutes. Add in the mint leaves. Turn off the heat and add in the yoghurt. Keep stirring until the oil starts to rise to the top of the mixture again. (Turning off the heat and stirring like this prevents the yoghurt from splitting.) VEGANS: just omit the yoghurt. Turn the heat back on and keep stirring, frying for 5 more minutes. Add in the roasted poppy seed and the full packet of Shan Masala (use less for less spicy) and stir for 1 more minute. Turn off flame and stir in garam masala. You should have an oily, spicy mixture.

Blending

Take out 1.5 cups of cooked haleem lentils grains + liquid and keep aside. This will be added back to the pot after you have pureed the rest of the haleem to give some chewy, grainy texture to the dish because of the pearl barley. Some people like a pure paste with no texture, so you can skip this if you want. I like the texture of some pearl barley in the haleem.

Add the vegetables and spice paste into the grains/lentils. Puree well with a stick blender. (This can be done well in a blender, too. That's just more work.) Add back in the un-pureed lentils/grains. Allow this to cook on low for a while so the flavors blend well. You can add water to get the consistency you like. Some people prefer haleem like a thick daal, others like a thicker paste. It shouldn't be too liquidy or too thick, though. If you add water, be sure to taste for salt. You've added a lot of salt but this is a huge degchi/pot of haleem, so check the salt. I think based on the recipe I have given that I usually add 1 cup to 1.5 cups water towards the end to achieve the consistency that I like.

Cook on low for 20 mins or so to let the flavors blend well.

Finishing with a baghaar

2-3 tbs oil
3 tbs birishta/brown fried onions

Lastly, give a baghaar/tarka of oil and birishta/fried onions. Use about 2-3 tbs oil and 3 tbs brown fried onions. Take care not to burn the already fried onions in the oil. Rather than just tossing the pre-fried onions into the haleem, awakens their caramelized sweetness and flavor. Pour this hot oil-onion tempering on the haleem. You may stir in the baghaar or leave it showing on the top, as per your preference.

Oila. You have vegetarian haleem!

Optional: Traditionally, haleem was made over a wood fire. Haleem cooked this way has a special smoky flavor. To replicate this and make your haleem extra fancy, add a "dhungar" (smokey flavor) by heating a small piece of coal on the stove, then placing the hot coal in oil inside of a little metal katori/dish to the haleem, and covering the pot so it can get smoked for 20 minutes. Then pour in some of the oil from the dhungar and mix well. Be sure to use pure charcoal and not a chemical filled briquette. This blog has instructions with pics on giving dhungar...there are also some youtube vids on it if you search.


Don't forget the garnishes! 

fried cashews, matchstick ginger shards, finely chopped green chiles, fried onions (birishta), fresh chopped cilantro, a tiny squeeze of lemon juice, and optionally, some chaat masala. This haleem is rich and spicy, so you may not want the chaat masala, though.

You'll have to prepare a small amount of these garnishes and set them on a platter next to your haleem as your serve it for each diner to add to their own dish.

Serve with naan.


*This dish is rich and fattening. You've used more than a cup of oil plus all kinds of fatty nuts and seeds. But this is a large batch of haleem, so don't worry too much. You can likely get 20 or more cup sized servings out of this recipe.

Aloo Anday ka Saalan (Potato and Hard Boiled Egg Curry) #2

A very simple recipe to use for daily cooking, I make this a couple of times a month. I typically serve this with a wet daal or a simple vegetable dish such as bitter greens or karela. The gravy, potato, and egg taste delicious mashed into plain rice. You could even serve this as a solo dish and set out a selection of pickles and a raita on the table. This saalan (wet curry) also goes well with roti.

Oil has been poured off but you can still see some oil in the finished dish or this wouldn't be a proper saalan!

For this dish you need 5 hard boiled eggs peeled and cut in half. I discovered a couple of years ago that if I steam hard boiled eggs on medium heat for 14 minutes, then remove them from the steam and let them rest for 15-20 minutes, they turn out with a perfectly cooked yellow yolk.

In addition you need 1 large potato or 2-3 small potatoes peeled and cut into wedges that are similar in size to the hard boiled egg halves.

The saalan:

1/2 cup oil (oil will be poured off later)
1 tsp whole cumin seeds (sabut zeera)
1 medium onion sliced thinly
1 heaping tbs ginger-garlic paste
2-3 finely chopped green chiles (I ground these with the ginger-garlic paste)
2 large ripe, juicy tomatoes finely chopped, or 2 cups of roughly pureed tomato
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/2 tsp red chile powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tbs coriander powder
2 cups water
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 pinch Shan Curry Powder or any Kitchen King Masala
1 pinch dried methi rubbed between palms (qasoori methi)

Heat oil in pot and add in cumin seeds. As they sizzle toss in the sliced onions. Stir onions frequently on high heat. When you see that a lot of moisture has evaporated from them, turn down the heat and allow the onions to cook until they are golden. Turn up the heat and add in the ginger garlic paste and finely chopped green chile. When the ginger garlic paste changes color from pale to golden, add in the tomato. Stir tomato on high heat for a while. Add in your turmeric, red chile powder, cumin, and coriander. Cook this gravy for a while until all of the moisture has evaporated from the tomatoes and you have a paste with all of the oil on top of it. Remove from the heat and pour off as much oil as you can without losing any gravy. (You can discard the oil or re-use it in a red meat curry dish.) Put pot back on the stove. Set the flame to high and add in the potato. Stir for a moment, then pour in the water.  Stir in the salt. Allow this to come to a boil. Cover the pan and turn the heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are completely cooked. When they potatoes are cooked, turn off the heat. Toss in the curry powder and the dried methi and stir. Add in the hard boiled egg halves and gently shake the pot to allow the top of the eggs to get covered lightly in gravy. Ideally they shouldn't be completely submerged so that they are visible and look pretty. If you care to make this daily dish fancier, pour the gravy in a flat rimmed serving dish, then arrange the eggs in the dish, spooning some gravy on top of each egg. The eggs should sit in the gravy for 5-10 minutes so that they pick up the saalan's flavor.

For an alternative alu anday recipe that does not use the typical tomato-onion masala, see here.

Served with healthy brown basmati rice with the gravy mixed and mashed in. Yummy to eat with fingers!

Fish shami kababs

Usually you see beef, mutton, or chicken shami kababs.

I decided to try to make them using fish. This is a #whattodowithshanmasala recipe.

They came out well. This is a complicated and cumbersome recipe. You can make these for a party. These freeze well so it is nice to make a bunch and then keep some in the freezer to defrost as needed.

I used basa fish, but you can use any kind of firm fleshed, mild white fish. Use half the recipe for a family sized amount of shami kababs, but for a party, this will make around 26-30 patties, depending on how big you make your patties. I make mine by scooping two tablespoons into my hand so that I can be sure that all of the patties will be the same size. I don't have kabab skillz like some people who can make all of the patties the same by eyeballing.

Mise en place ready to go. 

Ingredients:

2 lbs fish filets cut into pieces, soaked in 1/4 cup vinegar, turmeric, and chile powder (1 tsp each) for 30 mins, then rinsed and patted dry
3 cups boiled channa daal (soak 1.5 cups raw daal for one hour, then boil, lower heat and cook for 20 mins until completely tender but still whole, strain, and set aside)
1 small onion chopped finely
1 small onion chopped roughly
14 green chiles (no need to chop since these will get blended)
3 tbs garam masala
2 heaping tbs Shan Shami Kabab Masala
1 conservative tsp elaichi seeds (unhusked black seed)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1 cup loosely packed cilantro
pinch of salt (maybe 1/2 tsp, but taste the patty dough because it will be fully cooked and adjustable)
1 egg for binding
1 tbs lime juice
3-4 eggs for dipping
3 tbs  oil for making the meat
oil for frying shamis

Method:

Cooked ingredients.

Heat 3 tbs oil in pot. Add in the finely chopped onions and fry for a few minutes until they become clear. Add in ginger garlic paste and 8 green chiles. Stir this until the ginger garlic is golden. Add in the fish and the powdered masalas. Stir until fish is fully cooked. Add in the lentils and mix well.  Stir till this looks very dry. Turn off the flame. Add salt. Be conservative because you can always add more salt but cannot take salt out. Allow this to cool for a few minutes. Add in the remaining fresh green chiles, mint, the roughly chopped onion, and the cilantro, and mix. Transfer to a blender and blend until it is a smooth paste. If I make this full amount, I do this in three batches with lots of scrape downs of the blender jar. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Taste for salt, and add more if need be. Stir elaichi seeds, and lime juice. Finally, stir in one beaten egg. Put this in the fridge for an hour or two to let it cool completely and firm up a bit.

Blended mixture.

When you are ready to fry, heat up 1/4 cup oil in a wide frying pan. Beat your 3-4 eggs (or however many you need) with a tiny sprinkle of salt. Form patties in your hands and dip them in the egg wash. The fish shami kabab patties are very soft and hard to work with. Fry only a few at a time so you can manage. Put them in the frying pan for a few moments, then turn over and allow to brown on the other side. Remove from oil and keep on a plate covered in paper towels to absorb some of the oil The soft shamis will firm up a bit as they cool down.




Serve these with ketchup or coriander chutney or tamarind chutney. These also go well on a sandwich.

Aloo Chholay Chickpea and Potato Curry

This is a #whattodowithShanMasala recipe, meaning that it is required that you have Shan Chana Masala Mix (or your channa masala brand of choice) to make this recipe.

Alu chholay, a classic dish of Punjab. Serve this with roti, or even puris or kulchay. Make it thick or liquidy as per your taste, and if it has a wetter gravy, enjoy it with rice.

You may be wondering why Shan labels their mix chana (also spelled channa), but some people call this legume chhola (plural chholay). Chhola is the Punjabi word. This is what we call in English chickpea or garbanzo bean. To distinguish from the indigenous strain of desi chickpea, the channa daal with it's black outer skin, many people also call the larger, non-indigenous garbanzo Kabuli channa (channa from Kabul, Afghanistan) or safaid channa (white chickpeas).


Step one: Preparing the chholay

Chholay are best prepared in a pressure cooker, but can also be boiled in a regular pot. You will need:

1.5 cups of dried chickpeas
pinch of baking soda
1 black tea bag
1/2 tsp salt
water

Put your dried chickpeas in a deep bowl and wash them well. Cover them in double their amount of water. They will swell and grow as they rehydrate, so you want to make sure that they are in a deep enough amount of water. Add in 1 pinch of baking soda. This helps them soften when they soak and cook. Soak these at least 5 hours, or overnight.

When you are ready to prepare the chickpeas, strain them from the water. Never boil legumes in the water in which they have soaked, as all of the gas causing properties of the legumes will be in the water. It should be discarded (or used to water the plants or something). Put chickpeas in a pressure cooker with double the amount of water of the chickpeas. Add in the black tea bag and the salt. Cover and pressure cook them for about 25 minutes. In my Hawkins, it takes about 8 whistles and then low simmer for 10 minutes. Your pressure cooker cook time may vary.

When done, the chickpeas should be beautifully tender. Keep them aside with their cooking liquid, and discard the tea bag, which should have done its job of coloring the chholay. You will need the chickpeas separately from the cooking liquid, so when you are ready to cook, have the chickpeas strained, and keep the cooking liquid in another vessel.

You can also soak the chickpeas overnight and boil them (no salt) on the stove top for 45 mins to an hour. Add the salt when they are soft. OR you can use canned chickpeas. Canned don't have the fluffy, soft texture of rehydrated boiled chickpeas, though. It's up to you.

Step 2: The masala

1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion chopped (lemon sized onion, or 1/2 American onion)
1 tbs garlic paste
1 tbs ginger paste
1 tsp red chile powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 cup roughly pureed tomatoes (or 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped)
1 tbs Shan Chana Masala
3-4 small potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized cubes
1/2 tsp amchoor
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste (+/- 1 tsp)


garnish:
chopped green chiles and chopped cilantro

Method:

Heat oil in pan. Add in cumin seeds and allow them to color. Add in onions. Cook onions until they are translucent and turning golden, and browning a little bit on the outside. Don't let them become too brown or your curry gravy will be sweet. Add in the garlic and ginger when the onions are golden. Allow the garlic and ginger to color, then toss in the red chile powder, turmeric, coriander powder, and cumin powder. Allow this to sizzle for a second. Add in the tomato puree. Cook for a few moments until the tomatoes dry up a bit and the oil rises out of the masala paste. Add in the salt, then toss in the chickpeas that you had kept aside. Stir these for a few moments. Now, add in the Shan Chana Masala and stir well. Then, add in 1 cup of the chickpea cooking liquid. Allow this to come to a boil. Add in the chopped potatoes. Bring to a boil again. Cover, turn the heat to low, and cook for 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are completely done. When the cooking is done, turn off the flame and stir in the garam masala and amchoor. Cover and let this rest for 5 full minutes. The liquid will thicken at this point. If you want a wetter gravy, add in 1/2 cup or so more water. Stir in some cilantro, and then add more cilantro and chopped green chiles on the top of the dish.

Doab Fish Fry (What to do with Shan Masala)

I have a lot of recipes that are based on adding my own twist to packaged Shan Masala packets. Their qorma, chappli kabab, Sindhi biriani, and a few others are quite good but all need some adaptation to give one's own signature to a dish. Here is what I do with a box of Shan Lahori Fish Mix. Shan Lahori Fish Mix on its own is quite good but extremely salty. It is so salty that if you don't doctor it up, it is inedible. But it is quite convenient to use in that if you were to make a fish fry mix on your own you would need at least a dozen more ingredients than what I have listed below, so it saves time and effort.

I christened this recipe Doab (doh-aahb) Fish Fry since it is a confluence of Shan fish fry and my ingredients, just like a meeting of rivers in The Land of the Five Rivers, Punjab. :)

Doab Fish Fry:

1 lbs Swai fish filets cut into 2-3 inch chunks or large nuggets (or any other white, mild tasting fish like tilapia or king fish)
3 tbs vinegar
1 tsp turmeric
pinch of salt (1/8 tsp)

1 box Shan Lahori Fish Mix
1/4 cup of besan (chickpea flour) plus 2 tablespoons
4 tbs yellow cornmeal
3 pieces of garlic
1 inch of ginger
2 green chiles
2 tbs fresh cilantro finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried mint
1/2 tsp ajwain seeds
pinch of red or orange food coloring powder (optional, I just use it to give a festive look and also so that the end result doesn't seem like I have used Shan Masala stuff from the box or that it is just a fish pakora)
1 tsp lime juice
1 and 1/4 cups water or a little more if the batter looks too thick

oil for shallow frying

Method:

• Wash fish well and cut into large nuggets. In a bowl, mix the vinegar, turmeric, and salt. Add fish to this and allow to marinate for 1 hour or so. The vinegar will have a slight pickling affect on the fish, so when it is battered and deep fried the fish flesh will be extra creamy and tender against the crisp batter. Yum! The vinegar also removes any unpleasant fishiness from the fish. When you are ready to fry, remove fish from vinegar, briefly rinse the fish and pat dry. 

*Tip: You can also freeze your fish nuggets in the marinade and defrost, rinse, and proceed.

• Grind together the garlic, ginger, and green chiles to create a fine paste. 
• In a large mixing bowl, add all of the dry ingredients into the  Shan Lahori Fish fry. Mix well. Stir in the water and the wet ingredients including the ginger-garlic-chile paste and cilantro. Add in the fish and allow to marinade for 1/2 an hour to 1 hour. 
• Heat oil on a medium-high flame and shallow fry fish on one side, then the other.
• Serve immediately. You may wish to garnish with a dash of chaat masala or a sprinkle of lime juice but I think it tastes amazing on its own. Serve with ketchup or meethi chutney. For my meethi chutney recipe, see here in this post.

*Tip: I wear disposable kitchen gloves when I handle the fish and wet marinade and batter because I like to mix with my hands to ensure even coating, but I hate the stains of turmeric or food coloring.

Fried Cassava Wedges or Yuca Frita Desi Style

Cassava goes by many names. In the US, it is widely known in English by its Spanish name, yuca.  (Sometimes spelled yucca, but not to be confused with the spiky perennial decorative plant yucca, so I will spell it yuca here.) Yuca is a delicious, starchy, potato-like tuber with its own distinct taste. In terms of subcontinental cooking, yuca is more of a South Indian ingredient. In the North, it is only widely known through its by-product, sabudana, or tapioca pearls, which are used in a variety of preparations.  Note that sabudana and sago/sagudana are not the same thing, though many people mistakenly think that they are. They are actually made from different sources. Barring a few Gujarati origin East African friends who I have observed grew up eating cassava as mogo (from Kiswahili mhogo), I am not familiar with it being used much in the North of the subcontinent. Please let me know if I am mistaken about this, because I am always interested in new regional culinary information and recipes. Yuca is eaten in South India in a variety of forms. In some parts of South India, yuca is cut into wedges and cooked in wet gravy preparations (aka 'curry'). Cassava pops up in many cuisines from the Americas to Africa to Asia, but in terms of subcontinental flavor, there are also a lot of diasporic desi recipes for cassava, from Trinidad to Fiji. It is well worth looking into recipes to expand your repertoire with this simple yet delicious tuber. Cassava leaves are also delectable, and can be cooked like any saag.

I enjoy fried yuca, and I wanted to share with you how I make it at home.

Ingredients: yuca, chaat masala (I use Shan brand), roasted red chile powder, roasted cumin powder, and salt. I am not specifying the quantity of powdered spice, but I'd say it is a pinch of each spice per yuca that you use. (I seem to love to deep fry things and sprinkle them with chaat masala. I love chaat masala!)

Put some water in a deep pot and bring it to a boil. Take your yuca and cut off both ends of it. Cut it in half latitudinally. Then use your knife to peel off the skin. (The skin contains toxins that you don't want to eat.) Once the two halves of yuca are peeled, cut them down the middle length wise, and remove the long inner fiber if there is one. Don't worry if your yuca has any purple coloring. That is normal. Submerge your yuca in water and strain it a few times, rinsing away the excess starch.

Once your water is boiling, put the yuca pieces in it. Allow the yuca to boil for about 25 minutes. The yuca should be cooked completely, and you should be able to break it apart into starchy shards if you press it down. There will be visible ridges in your cooked yuca, and these will create a delicious mouth texture when crisp fried, plus the seasoning will sink into the crevices. Yum! I digress.

You have removed your yuca from the boiling water. Set it on a paper towel to dry. Allow it to cool completely and air dry very well. I sometimes allow it to cool, refrigerate it, then bring it to room temperature and fry it the next day. That is also an option if you don't have time to complete the process all at once.

Once your yuca is air dried and at room temperature, cut it into wedges. You can make them larger or smaller depending on your own preference, since the inside of the yuca is already cooking and your goal is simply to crisp fry the exterior rather than to cook through the tuber. Heat some oil in a pan, and fry it till lightly golden in color and crispy. You may shallow fry or deep fry at your discretion. Take care not to over-fry it, as it will dry out and become dense. Ideally, each yuca wedge should have a very crispy exterior and a soft, moist interior.

Set your yuca fries on a paper towel for a few moments to remove some of the oil.

Now here is a trick: Take a brown paper sack. (Do not use a plastic bag as steam will be trapped inside and your yuca will lose crispness.) Pour in a dash each of all of the dried masalas and salt. Use more or less masala depending on how much yuca you have and how spicy you want your fries to be. Put the yuca fries in the paper sack, roll it closed, then shake shake shake your bag to evenly distribute the salt and masala.

Oila, yuca in hot and tangy chaat masala!

Serve alone, with tamarind chutney, or ketchup. This can be a snack, or a side dish with a meal. My kids love spicy yuca fries, too.

Chaat at home: Bhel Puri, Dahi Puri, Papri Chaat plus chutneys

Chaat...how to explain what chaat is? It is a genre of hot and sour crunchy snack foods. How do you explain chaat to someone who has never had it before?

In Dubai, we have a lot of chaat places. Not all of it is fabulous. Stale crunchies, overly seasoned or flavorless chutneys, a chaat mixer who robotically throws ingredients together, not caring to balance the flavors---it all lends to bad chaat. But some chaat places are consistently amazing. You cannot pass them by without stopping for a plate of gol gappe or dahi puri even if you have just had a meal. Eating great chaat is like having an explosive festival of flavor and texture in your mouth. I adore chaat. If I hadn't married my Pakistani husband, my life might be void of chaat. I may never have heard of the yummy stuff. Perish the thought!

In the des, chaat can be one of those foods that poses a high risk to the tummy for non-locals. For sanitary reasons, or for reasons of ritual purity, there are many desis who prefer to make chaat at home as well. My Gujarati neighbors employ a Maharaj (Brahmin cook) who prepares fresh chaat or Gujarati farsaans for them on a daily basis. In a Western country, you may live somewhere that there is no chaat house, or where the chaat isn't that great. So, it is useful to know how to make chaat at home. I actually prepared these recipes and did a demo on home made chaat for my school. It went really well. I hope you have as much success with the recipes.

Here are some recipes and ideas:
*I use Shan Chaat Masala as my chaat masala blend.

In order to give the hot, sweet, and sour flavors to most chaat dishes, you have to use a green chutney and a sweet chutney. Many chaat dishes also require yoghurt, which you may choose to lightly season. Many English and American people think chutney means a fruit sauce, but chutney is really any kind of dipping sauce. Green chutney is mainly cilantro and can have mint. Sweet chutney is usually made of tamarind or dehydrated dates, or a combination of the two. My dear cooking teacher showed me a way to make sweet chutney with mango powder (amchoor), although this is not her exact recipe (she uses roasted cumin and red chile powder in addition to chaat masala). Before I got her recipe, I was soaking and straining tamarind and pitting dates and boiling and straining and boiling and straining. What a headache. Now, I just boil the mango powder, fuss free.

Green Chutney
Ingredients:
1 bunch cilantro chopped  (about 2 loosely packed cups)
½ bunch mint leaves (about 1 loosely packed cup)
1-2 green chilies
½ piece bell pepper
½ small onion
3 tbs lemon juice
3 tsp sugar
Salt 1 heaping tsp or to Taste

How to make green chutney :
Blitz all ingredients thoroughly in a blender to make a paste. If you own a desi style grinder like this one, this is superior to a blender. Add a little water if required.

Sweet Chutney
In Dubai we get bags of gur cut into 100 gram chunks. They are about the size of a large American lemon. I hope these are available in the US, too. I don't want to deal with that giant block of gur. If that is all you have. Soften briefly in the microwave and cut off and weigh 200 grams.

Ingredients:
200 grams (two large chunks) jaggery sugar (Gur)
1 tbs mango powder
1 cup water
1 tsp chaat masala or to taste (I use Shan brand)
¼ tsp salt or to taste

How to make sweet chutney:
Boil jaggery sugar and mango powder together in water until the sugar melts. Keep boiling for about 5 minutes or until it thickens, stirring in the salt and chaat masala. You can make a double batch of this chutney and keep it in the fridge for a month to use as needed. I serve this chutney with any kabaab, chaat, or dahi baray

*This chutney contains no tamarind. If you prefer the mild, smokey flavor of tamarind as opposed the the sharp tartness of mango powder, omit the tbs of mango powder and in place of that use 1 tbs tamarind concentrated pulp...the seedless brick in the clear plastic wrap, not the terrible one in the jar.


Yoghurt for Chaat
4 cups yoghurt
1 tsp salt or to taste
2 tsp sugar or to taste


Three Types of Chaat to Try at Home
I do not make my puris, bhel/murmura, sev, etc. at home. That is beyond my cooking skill level. All of this can be bought pre-packaged at any Indo-Pak grocer. Haldiram's and Bikanerwala are excellent brands. Bhel puri mixes usually come with chutneys, too. Throw those away. Those chutneys are terrible and full of preservatives. Use the fresh recipes provided above.

Bhel Puri
Ingredients:
Pre-packaged Bhel Puri Mix – 3 cups
Potato-1/4 up boiled, peeled, and cubed
Whole green Mung beans- 2 tbs boiled
Chickpeas-1/4 cup cooked
Onion – 2 tbs, finely chopped
Sour green Mango – 2 tbs, finely chopped (optional, you can subsitute tart green apple for this, too)
Cilantro – 2 tbs, finely chopped
Green Chiles – 2-3 should suffice, use less for less heat
Sweet Chutney – 6 tbs or to taste
Green Chutney – 3 tbs or to taste

Method:
In a medium bowl, mix together bhel mix, onions, potato, chickpeas, mung beans. and sour green mango, cilantro and green chiles. Add sweet chutney and green chutney (you can adjust the amount suggested here according to your taste). Mix well and serve immediately. You just eat this stuff with a spoon. Yum!

Dahi Puri
Ingredients:
Pani Puri shells– 1 bag from Indian store
Potato – 1 medium cut into cubes
Chick peas – 1/4 cup cooked
Whole mung beans – ¼ cup cooked
Onion – 2 tbs finely chopped
Cilantro – 5 sprigs (finely chopped)
Yogurt – 1/2 cup (well beaten)
Chaat Masala – to taste
Salt – to taste
Red Chile Powder – to taste
Fresh green chiles- 1-2 chopped finely
Green Chutney – 1 tbs or to taste
Sweet Chutney – 2 tbs or to taste
Fine (Thin) Sev – 1/2 cup

Method:
Punch a small hole on top of each of the pani puri shell and place them in a plate. Stuff the puri shells with a little bit of the following: Potato, chick peas, mung beans, and onion. Spoon a little (to taste) green chutney and sweet chutney into the puri shells. Spoon some yogurt into the puri shells and then all around them. Sprinkle with chaat masala, salt, red chile powder and cilantro. Garnish with more sev and some chopped green chile slices. Drizzle green and sweet chutney on top.


Papri Chaat
Ingredients:
Paapri – 1 bag or 20-25 flat puris/paapri from Indian store
Potato – 1 small sized, boiled, peeled & cut into cubes
Chickpeas - 1/4 cup, cooked
Mung beans- 2 tbs cooked (soak for one hour then boil for 20 minutes and strain)
Onion – 2 tbs, finely chopped
Sour green mango- 2 tbs cut in cubes (optional, or substitute with tart green apple)
Fresh green chile- 1-2 chopped (or to taste)
Yoghurt – 3/4 cup, seasoned with salt and sugar and well beaten
Chaat Masala - to garnish
Green Chutney – 2 tbs or to taste
Sweet Chutney- 3 tbs or to taste
Thin Sev – 1/2 cup

Method:
Lay papri chips out on a plate. Sprinkle potatoes, onions, mung beans, chick peas, and green mango (optional) over the layer of papri. Drizzle yoghurt over the papri. Sprinkle a dash of chaat masala. Pour Green Chutney and Sweet Chutney on top to taste. Last, sprinkle thin sev and chopped green chiles as a garnish.


All chaats that contain crunchy ingredients should be served immediately to avoid going soggy.

Shan ki Shan: Sindhi Biriani

Some people will tell you that using Shan Masala is cheating. I say no way. Using Shan masala is perfectly fine if the end result tastes good. Shan is an auxiliary item. It doesn't create the 'maza' for you. Besides, no one just uses the packet of Shan Masala. Everyone always adds in their own medley of spices to a couple of spoonfuls of Shan for a dish. I have a post in mind about the rise in popularity  of Shan's connection to the birth of modern Pakistani cuisine. Shan has contributed to the homogenization of a diverse food culture in the young nation of Pakistan.  But in this post, I'd like to share with you my recipe (with a little help from Shan Uncle) for Sindhi biriani. Many people swear by Shan's Sindhi biriani mix. I use it, too as my favorite biriani. Here is my doctored up Shan masalay ki Sindhi biriani recipe. I add mango powder and extra dried plums (aloo bukharay) to the Shan masala to get a hot and sour taste in the finished biriani. Using Shan doesn't make it a bit easier, it is a complicated process. But it turns out great:

For the meat gravy you need:
1/2 cup of oil (which will be poured off of the gravy later, don't worry)
1 kg (2.2 lbs) of bone in mutton cut in large chunks (say 2/2 inch botees)
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
2 onions finely sliced and fried until crisp and brown (bhuni hui pyaaz)
1 tbs garlic paste
2-3 tomatoes roughly pureed
1 heaping tbs salt
1 tbs ginger paste
1 cup yoghurt
1.5 tbs Shan Sindhi Biriani Masala Mix
1 tsp coriander powder
1 heaping tsp ground mango powder (aamchoor)
1 tsp red chile powder
1 tsp garam masala
+/- 1 cup water
12 alu bukharay (dried plums/prunes available at Pakistani grocery)

Aloo Bukhara

Method: Mix the yoghurt with the powdered spices and the ginger paste and set aside. Heat oil in a pot and brown meat in two batches. Set the meat aside. Add cumin seeds, fried onions, and garlic paste to the oil.  Take care not to burn the onions. When the garlic is golden, stir in the tomato puree. Stir this for a while until the water has evaporated from the tomato puree and the oil is rising to the top of the gravy. Add in the salt. Stir in the meat and mix well. Turn down the heat and stir in the spiced yoghurt (lowering the heat will prevent the yoghurt from splitting). Mix well and turn up the heat again. Stir until oil rises to the top of the gravy. Add in the water and the aloo bukharay. Allow to boil, cover, simmer on low heat for about 1.5 hours until the meat is nicely tender. When it is done, remove the meat and aloo bukharay from the gravy with a slotted spoon. Turn up the heat and evaporate the remaining water from the gravy. You will have a thick biriani masala paste. Pour the oil that rises to the top of this paste off of the gravy to cut calories and to avoid a greasy biriani (yuck!). Add the meat and the aloo bukhary back to the dry gravy paste and keep ready for the rice. *You can add potatoes to this recipe. Peel and halve 3-4 potatoes and add in in the last 40 minutes of the gravy's cooking. Remove the potatoes at the same time you remove the meat for drying up the gravy.

For the rice:
3 cups of uncooked biriani grade basmati rice cooked according to these instructions: Lucky Delicious on How to Cook Basmati Rice  parboiling method. You will soak and parboil the rice according the specifications for biriani rice. Do this after the biriani gravy is done cooking. You will layer the rice with the biriani gravy in a pot soon after you have finished parboiling it. Take care to be gentle with the rice so as not to break the kernals.

Unmixed layered biriani before covering to fully cook (put on dam)

Perfuming the biriani:

16 fresh mint leaves
8 fresh whole green chiles, slit
1/2 tsp Kewra Water (available at the Pakistani grocery -keora jal-)
1/8 tsp of orange biriani food coloring added to 1/2 cup milk

mint and chiles

Bush brand biriani coloring, coloring mixed in milk, keora water

What to do: You have parboiled your rice. You have made a biriani gravy. Take a vessel and use a paper towel to grease it lightly with ghee. Add in a layer of meat and gravy. Distribut half of the mint leaves on top of this, and throw in half of the slit chiles. Now add in half of the rice. On top of this, add in another layer of meat gravy. Top this with the rest of the mint leaves and slit green chiles. Then add another layer of rice. Drizzle the rice with the keora water. Pour the orange colored milk into one area of the biriani rice. Now cover with a kitchen towel and close the lid. Put this on a high flame for 3-4 minutes to start some steam going in the pot. Then turn down the heat to the lowest setting and allow this to cook for about 18 minutes to finish off the rice and to allow the gravy and rice flavors to blend together. This step is called cooking on 'dam'.

biriani cooked on dam in a Sindhi sipri

When the biriani is cooked, turn off the flame and lift the lid to allow some steam to escape. Allow the biriani to rest for at least 10 minutes before mixing and serving it. This allows the rice to settle so that it won't break when you stir it. After the biriani has had a nice rest and you are read to serve, mix gently and set out on a serving dish. Garnish with finally chopped cilantro. Serve with plain yoghurt.

Freshly cooked and mixed biriani

Mutton Curry

Here is my recipe for mutton curry. I use Shan Masala Curry Powder. Another Pakistani home favorite.

2-3 tbs oil
1 kg bone in goat in stew sized chunks
1 onion chopped finely(the big yellow American onions 1, but if you use desi purple onions, use 2-3)
1 tbs garlic crushed
1 tsp ginger crushed
1 stick cinnamon
1 bay leaf
5 black peppercorns
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
3 whole dried red chili pods
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 heaping tsps Shan Curry Powder
1/2 cup yoghurt
2-3 tomatoes chopped
2 cups water
2 tbs Qasoori Methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt or to taste
chopped cilantro and green chilies for garnish

First brown meat for a few moments and then remove from oil and set aside. On high heat, add in this sequence cumin seeds, whole dried red chilies, cinnamon, bay leaf, peppercorns, onions, stir around till onions become translucent and lose a lot of moisture...you may need to turn down the heat if they start to brown. They should just be sauteed, not browned in this dish. In the mean while, add in the ginger garlic. When the onions are sauteed and the ginger and garlic is cooked, add in this sequence the turmeric, red chili powder, cumin powder, and coriander powder. Allow to sizzle for one moment, then add in the tomatoes, stir to melt down for a few minutes, then add in the yoghurt and for a few moments, add your salt and Shan Curry Powder now. Then, add in the browned goat. Pour in the 2 cups water and then allow to boil briefly, then cover and simmer on very low heat for 1 hour and 15 minutes or so until the goat is very tender. Now turn up the heat, (if the curry looks dry for your taste, add up to 1/2 cup water) and add in the dry Qasoori methi, stir around for a moment. Add in the lemon juice, stir, turn off heat, and garnish with green chilies and cilantro. Serve with chapattis or basmati rice.

Karhai chicken I

I love the combo of hot and sour. Luckily there are a lot of Pakistani dishes that hit the spot for me when it comes to chili hot and lemon sour layers of flavor. A karhai is a wok like pot with two handles on either side. You can use an authentic karhai, but it isn't absolutely necessary. I make karhai chicken in a deep non-stick pot, which I use for most of my "curry" type dishes. Karhai chicken is a very typical PK household standard. Originating from the Frontier region, it is made in many interpretations across Pakistan and also in India. You should serve this particular version with chapati (whole wheat flatbread), or naan. This is an adaptation of my mother-in-law's home recipe.

1 whole chicken skinned and cut into medium to small pieces (about 12 pieces), bone-in
1 tbs crushed ginger
2 inches worth of ginger chopped into match-stick sized slivers
1 tbs crushed garlic
3 large tomatoes chopped
1 tsp red chile powder
1 heaping tablespoon Shan brand Curry Powder
1/2 tsp amchoor (dried mango powder)
2 green chilies finely chopped
2 green chilies roughly chopped (large chunks)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp or so lime juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
2-3 tbs oil

Heat oil in pan. Add in crushed garlic and crushed ginger and stir on high heat until golden. Toss in tomatoes, Shan Curry Powder, red chile powder, finely chopped green chilies, and salt. Stir on high heat for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes melt down and you are left with a thick gravy paste. Toss in the chicken pieces and braise on high heat for a few minutes until all the chicken turns color. Add in the water---you may need more or less depending on how much water your locally available chicken releases when cooking. Allow to boil once, cover, and lower heat to the lowest setting to cook until chicken is done, stirring occasionally to prevent the bottom from sticking/burning. The chicken available to me here in Dubai takes about 30 minutes. *TIP*: Karhai chicken should have a fairly thick and dry gravy. When you are ready to serve, add in the aamchoor, lemon juice and mix it well into the gravy. The aamchoor and the lime juice both add sourness, but have very different flavor notes, and will add something special to the dish while achieving tartness in the gravy. Garnish with the roughly chopped green chilies, cilantro, and match stick sized ginger slices.

So simple, tangy, hot and delicious. You're gonna luv it!

Here's another *TIP*: You can easily turn this dish into karhai methi chicken. Methi is fenugreek. You need a box of Qasoori methi, which is dried fenugreek. Follow all of the steps and ingredients, but omit the match stick ginger garnish. When the chicken is cooked and the gravy looks good, stir in 2 table spoons of Qasoori methi. Cover the pot and allow the methi to mingle with the chicken for about 5 minutes. Then stir in the aamchoor, lime juice, and garnish with the roughly chopped chilies and cilantro.

Krazy for karhai?
For black peppercorn karhai see here.
For Landi Kotal Shinwari style karhai, see here.

Arvi Curry: Taro root cooked in a desi style

Arvi is taro root. Since I have been doing South Asian cooking, I have eaten many vegetables that are very exotic for me. These vegetables have been very exciting to discover and add to my repertoire of things I cook and eat. Arvi is one of them. Arvi is similar to a potato in taste and texture, but still different. Like potatoes, arvi soaks up gravy flavors very well. You can find the furry little guys at your local desi or East Asian grocer. Choose small, evenly round firm ones. To prepare:

Ingredients:

3-4 arvi, peeled and split in half

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

2-3 dried red chilies

1/2 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1tsp Shan Curry Powder

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup water

1 tsp or so salt to taste

2-3 tbs oil

1 tbs cilantro chopped

1-2 fresh green chilies chopped

Preparation:

Heat oil in wok (wok must have a cover) or deep pot (that has a lid), when the oil is very hot, add in cumin seeds and red chilies. Allow to sizzle, toss in garlic and ginger. Cook until golden, a bit less than one minute. Do not burn. When garlic/ginger start to color, toss in turmeric and chili powder, stir and allow to sizzle. Then add in tomatoes, stir and let tomatoes "melt" by stirring on high heat to allow the water to evaporate from them. Add salt at this point. After about 5 minutes, add in the arvi halves, stir to coat with the gravy. Add in the water and Shan Curry Powder. Bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat. Cook until arvi are tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with chopped cilantro and fresh green chilies and serve with chappatis or plain basmati rice.

Kofta: Meatballs in sauce the desi way

I posted this recipe for Kofta at one of my favorite foodie websites, Chowhound. This is originally my mother in law's recipe. I have used it many times and it yields excellent results.

Yes, that really is a centimeter or so of oil floating on top of the gravy. Welcome to authentic Indo-Pak cooking. You can pour off the fat at the end if it really bothers you, but you won't get the same results without it in the initial stages of cooking.

This is really aloo kofta or potato and meatballs in the pic. I added the potatoes peeled, quartered potatoes at Step 11 of my chowhound recipe post.

A trick I discovered for really tender, silky textured koftay is to use 1/2 of a white hamburger or hot dog bun, the cheapie kind that kids like to eat as your white bread in the kofta mixture.





If you do not regularly cook desi (subcontinental) food and don’t have typical desi ingredients in the home, you will have to go for a trip to your Indo-Pak grocer to pick up a few things. Namely ground poppy seed powder (khash khaash powder), which is an optional ingredient, a good quality garam masala, a box of Shan brand Qorma masala (it is an authentic and widely used Pakistani spice mix, highly reputable, and far from the yellow curry powders), and a packet of chickpea flour a.k.a gram flour (besan). If you like heat, I would also recommend that you invest in a desi type of chili powder. Lastly, you should only use real yoghurt (Greek type), which you can also get at the desi grocery.



The recipe’s ingredients are broken into two parts: koftay (meatballs) and saalan (wet gravy).



INGREDIENTS

KOFTA Ingredients

2 tbs. chickpea flour (besan)
2 onions
1 lb ground beef or mutton
1 tsp crushed fresh ginger
1 tsp crushed fresh garlic
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground red chili powder
1/2 tsp poppy seed powder (khash khaahs powder)—-optional, just gives that extra umph
1-2 fresh green chilies
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt or salt to taste
1 tbs butter
1 slice white bread soaked in milk and then squeezed


SAALAN (Gravy) Ingredients

1 cup real yoghurt whipped
1 onion
1 tsp crushed fresh ginger
1 tsp crushed fresh garlic
2 heaping tbs Shan Qorma Masala
salt to taste (about 1 heaping tsp)
1/4 cup oil
2-3 cups water
1 tbs fresh chopped cilantro for garnish



INSTRUCTIONS

In a dry hot pan, roast the chickpea flour for a few minutes until it browns a little bit and you can smell the toasty aroma. Set aside.

Finely slice two of the onions, then caramelize them in oil until they are crispy brown: deep fry on high heat for about 7-10 minutes, then lower the heat and allow to brown. this takes about 20 more minutes—-this is a typical step in South Asian cooking and you should know how to do this if you would like to cook authentically from this region) Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels, and set aside.

In a food processor, grind the raw onion, half of the browned onions, and green chilies

Place the ground meat in a largish mixing bowl: add the ground onion/chili mixture, the squeezed milk-soaked bread, and all of the other KOFTA ingredients. Knead very well with your hands, mixing, mashing, breaking down the fibers of the meat to achieve maximum tenderness. You should mix and mash for about 10 minutes.

With wet hands, roll out the ground meat mixture into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball. You should get around 12 meatballs or so. Set these aside.

Heat on high 1/4 cup oil in a deep pot. Add in the other half of the browned onions, the garlic, and ginger and stir for around 30 seconds until the garlic and ginger cook. Do this quickly and do NOT blacken the onions or your gravy is ruined.

Stir in whipped yoghurt (when you add this it will prevent the browned onions from blackening.

Add the salt and the Shan Qorma Masala, and about 1/2 cup of water. Mix well.

Cover, lower heat, and allow to cook for 20 minutes until oil separates from gravy. Stir occasionally to prevent gravy from sticking to pan.

Next, add meatballs in pan a single layer. Add 1/2 cup more water if necessary. Meatballs should be about half way covered in gravy. Turn up heat, allow the gravy to boil, then cover and lower heat. Simmer for 15 minutes, turning the meatballs by shaking the pan gently.

Lastly, add 2 cups of water to the pot, allow to boil, then lower heat and cover. Allow to cook for 1/2 hour.

When done, you should have a lot of gravy. It should be liquidy, but velvety.

Garnish with cilantro.